fully and finally verified in the Miniftry of SER M. John, who, we can't find to have done fo

much as those Words feem to imply. Nor indeed was that the Time for doing it. For the Reftoring of all Things is what St. Peter attributes not to the first, but to the fecond Coming of Chrift, whom the Heavens (faith he) must receive until the Times of the Reftitution of all Things, Acts iii. 21. If then the Times of the Reftitution of all Things be not till the fecond Coming of Christ, it is plain that the Baptift could not restore all Things at his firft Coming. And if the Mafter come not to restore all Things till then we may affure ourselves his Harbinger, who is to prepare his Way for reftoring all Things, is not to be looked for or expected before.

;

These Testimonies and Arguments make it probable that Elijah the Tifhbite, who went up to Heaven by a Whirlwind, is again to make his Appearance upon Earth. And if fo; it is not improbable but that his Bufiness may be to prepare the Way for our Bleffed Saviour in the Deftruction of Antichrift, and confequently, as the Character feems to intimate, that he may be one of the two Witneffes which are to bear their Teftimony in Behalf of Jefus, and at laft by the Oppreffion

XV.

XV.

SER M. Oppreffion and Tyranny of the Beast, to lay down their Lives in Confirmation of it's Truth, and to have their dead Bodies exposed three Days and an half in the Streets of Jerufalem. And if Elijah be one of these Witneffes, why may not Enoch be the other? He was tranflated from the Earth much the fame Way, and therefore may probably be referved for the fame Commiffion and Office. And if this be true; the Apostle's Affertion will then be univerfal: viz. that it is appointed unto all Men to die, or at least to undergo fuch a Tranfmutation or Change as fhall be equivalent to Death. But if it be not true; it will still be a general Assertion, from which but two Exceptions have been known fince the Creation of the World; and from which we are affured there will be no more till the Day of Judgment.

With the utmoft Truth therefore might the Apostle fay, as it is here expreffed, It is appointed unto Men once to die. So that I need not detain you to prove what I believe there is no Body that denies. We fee with our Eyes, and are convinced by the Experience of every Day, that one Generation fucceeds another, and that the longest Livers fubmit at laft to the fatal Stroke.

It will be a more proper Enquiry and a more useful one to us, to look into the Reafons of this common Fatality, and to examine how Men came firft to be left in this Condition. Though indeed were we only to take a View of our Compofition, it wonld not feem to need an Enquiry, how a Body that was originally taken out of the Duft, should diffolve in Time into Dust again. For how could it be expected that a Body compounded of Flesh and Blood, fhould always continue in Youth and Vigor, without being fubject to Change and Decay? But yet we learn from the History of our Creation, that as frail and brittle as thefe Bodies are now, they were once defigned to laft for ever: and that, if Man had not by his own moft voluntary Tranfgreffion broken the Condition, on which Immortality was promised him; an external Remedy was provided for his Support, whereby all that concerned his natural Frame fhould have been preferved, if perfect, or re-established, if impaired.

In the midft of the Garden where Adam was placed, there was planted, we know, a Tree of Life: Of this Tree amongst the reft, Adam was allowed and indulged to eat, fo long as he abftained from another Tree

that

SERM.
XV.

XV.

SER M. that grew juft by it, the Tree of Knowledge. Now both the Name and the History of the Tree of Life intimate that it was either a Sacrament or Sign, or else a natural Means, of Immortality: And confequently that whoever should have eat of this Tree, would, either by the natural Virtue of the Tree continually repairing the Decays of Nature, or else by the Power of God accompanying it, have lived for ever.

But whatever was the Virtue of the Tree of Life, or by whatever Means Man would have been kept or preferv'd immortal; it is plain that immortal he would have been, provided he had obeyed the Commands of his Maker. This is evident from the very Command itself that was laid upon him: God threatens that if he eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he fhould furely die, Gen. ii. 17. From whence we may infer that fo long as he forbore to eat of it he fhould have lived. For if the fame Fate was to have attended him whether he eat, or eat not, i. e. if he must neceffarily have died, whether he obeyed God's Command or difobeyed it; how can we account for God's threatning his Difobedience with Death, which, according to the Suppofition,

XV.

is no more than he must have undergone, S ER M
had he been ever fo obedient? God's threat-
ning Death therefore as a Punishment, is a
plain Argument that had not Man commit
ted the Tranfgreffion, he would not have
incurred Death, which was the Penalty.
This is further evident from the Sentence
that was paffed upon Man for his Tranfgref-
fion: Duft thou art, and to Duft halt thou
return, Gen. iii. 19. A perfect Demonftra-
tion that the Reafon of Man's returning to
Duft, was because he had tranfgreffed the
Will of his Maker. That Man therefore
was left in a mortal State was owing to his
Sins: And if fo, then it plainly follows that
he was defigned originally to have been im-
mortal, as the Wifeman exprefsly affirms.
God made Man to be immortal, and made him
to be an Image of his own Eternity. Ne
vertheless through Envy of the Devil Death
came into the World, and they that do hold
of his Side, do find it, Wifd. ii. 23, 24.

And thus by the Tranfgreffion of our
common Parent the Sentence of Death has
paffed on all his Pofterity: By one Man,
(faith the Apostle) Sin entered into the World,
and Death by Sin, and fo Death paffed upon
all, for that all have finned, Rom. v. 12.
VOL. II.
Z

i. é.